Kerala government to resume river sand mining after a decade
Thiruvananthapuram: The Revenue Department of Kerala has issued an order approving the guidelines for resuming river sand mining in the state. Improving the flow of rivers and finding internal sand resources for construction activities in the state are cited as two major factors that motivated the
Thiruvananthapuram: The Revenue Department of Kerala has issued an order approving the guidelines for resuming river sand mining in the state. Improving the flow of rivers and finding internal sand resources for construction activities in the state are cited as two major factors that motivated the
Thiruvananthapuram: The Revenue Department of Kerala has issued an order approving the guidelines for resuming river sand mining in the state. Improving the flow of rivers and finding internal sand resources for construction activities in the state are cited as two major factors that motivated the
Thiruvananthapuram: The Revenue Department of Kerala has issued an order approving the guidelines for resuming river sand mining in the state. Improving the flow of rivers and finding internal sand resources for construction activities in the state are cited as two major factors that motivated the government decision.
River sand mining was stopped in Kerala in 2016 after sand extraction from rivers crossed limits and the Ministry of Environment and Forests insisted on environment clearance for mining.
The new guidelines have been drawn up on the basis of the Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining (EMGSM), 2020, and the directives of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal on legal and scientific mining of river sand in the country.
Under the new guidelines, a District Survey Report (DSR) has to be drawn up for rivers in each district. The District Survey Report will form the basis for the application for environmental clearance. The DSR has to be updated every five years.
CSIR-National Institute of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Technology (CSIR-NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, has drawn up DSRs for 11 districts. Of this four - Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur and Kollam - have been approved by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) in January, 2024; they are now being subjected to further revision before publication.
The DSRs of Kannur and Kasaragod are under the consideration of the SEIAA; the evaluation of the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) has been completed and the DSRs have been returned to the CSIR-NIIST for revision. The DSRs of two districts - Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam - are in the public consultation stage. DSRs of Kozhikode, Kottayam and Idukki have found no potential sand mining sites.
DSRs are prepared with inputs from the sand auditing conducted in Kerala between 2021 and 2024. In this period, sand audit of 32 of the 44 rivers in Kerala have been done. It was found that "restricted sand mining" could be permitted subject to environment clearance in 16 rivers. In 15 other rivers, sand mining has been banned for three years.
Here are the 16 rivers with mining potential: Kulathupuzha (Kollam), Achankovil (Pathanamthitta), Pamba (Pathanamthitta), Manimala (Pathanamthitta and Kottayam), Periyar (Idukki and Ernakulam), Muvattupuzha (Ernakulam and Kottayam), Bharathapuzha (Palakkad, Thrissur, Malappuram), Kadalundi (Malappuram), Chaliyar (Malappuram and Kozhikode), Perumba (Kannur), Valappattanam (Kannur), Sreekandapuram (Kannur), Mahe (Kannur), Uppala (Kasaragod), Mogral (Kasaragod), Shiriya-Yalkana (Kasaragod), Chandragiri - part II (Kasaragod).
The 15 rivers where mining is banned for three years: Neyyar (Thiruvananthapuram), Karamana (Thiruvananthapuram), Vamanapuram (Thiruvananthapuram), Ithikkara (Kollam), Kallada (Kollam), Meenachil (Kottayam), Karuvannur (Thrissur), Chalakkucy (Thrissur), Kechery (Thrissur), Gayathripuzha (Thrissur and Palakkad), Kabani (Wayanad), Kuttiyadi (Kozhikode), Vallithode (Kannur), Ancharakandy (Kannur), Chandragiri- part I (Kasaragod).
Sand auditing has three phases. One, resource estimation: a realistic estimation of the sand resource in a given stretch. Two, resource allocation: assessment of the sustainable level of sand mining. Three, performance evaluation: gauging the performance of mining activities during the period of auditing.
Sand Mining in Kerala is controlled and regulated by the provisions of Kerala Protection of River Banks and Regulations on Removal of Sand Act, 2001. Mining is a wholly government enterprise, no portion of the river is leased out to private parties. Sand Mining is done by Kadavu Committees led by panchayat presidents or municipality chairpersons with statutory powers under the supervision of the District Expert Committee (DEC) headed by the District Collector.